Directors: Pella Kagerman, Hugo Lilja Writers: Pella Kagerman, Hugo Lilja Stars: Emelie Jonsson, Bianca Cruzeiro, Arvin Kananian
A science fiction film based on a poem was never likely to be a high-octane laser romp, but aside from a from a few scattered super-scientifical trimmings, Aniara appears to take place in a shopping center.
Which is great.
The loosely connected chapters are navigated by a nameless protagonist known only as 'Mimarobe', her super-scientifical job title.
Mimarobe is the hostess of the Mima, a hallucinatory AI which hijacks peoples senses with pastoral visions, to enrich their lives on the months long voyage to Mars. The first act plays out very much like classic scifi, with the ship knocked off course and the Mima developing disturbingly Hal9000-ish tics as people throng to the illusion of an individual idyll.
But that is not what this movie is. At all.
As the chapters spool out into unexpected vistas of time and space, plot becomes less and less important in favour of a series of sketches on hope, loss, order and chaos.
If you have ever looked out at the night sky and felt that huge sense of insignificance, and if that sensation filled you with melancholic awe rather than Lovecraftian, existential dread, you will get a lot from Aniara.
Punchy, reductive summary: Passengers remade by every French philosopher ever.
